The barren black-walled warehouse was reminiscent of a menacing film noir scene; fifteen people were seated at the four tables arranged in a square, heads bowed pouring over the manuscripts before them. The room had fallen weirdly hushed.

The silence was broken by Jersey Boys alumnus Michael Erickson’s deep, bellowing yet soft and melodic vocal contribution…Try to remember the kind of September,when life was slow and oh so mellow…

Those opening lines of the opening song from The Fantastiks, lifted the cloud that had descended over composer/arranger/conductor and now-director, Bill Fayne. Fayne’s decades-long dream of bringing the longest running musical to Las Vegas was crushed during production when the Onyx Theater closed last year.